See You would be no Better off with National Express!

[whole diary]

[smithy]

Still could have been worse...First could be running it! 

Timmer as a moderator of this forum you really are a fool.

Do some research and you'll find that First (disregarding currently FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) are running some of the BEST rail franchises in this country. TransPennine Express Scot Rail and Hull Trains, and First GBrf continue to be awarded new rail freight contracts.

So judging by this I somewhat I have gut feeling they can't be all that bad!

We all know they have had problems down our neck of the woods, some of it inheriated, some of it their own making. Things do however seem better, cancellations/failure's down and more trains running right time. Let's hope that in a few months more people like yourself will be eating their just slice of humble pie. I for one think you will and can't wait for the told you so.

I am disappointed that you decided to resort to a personal attack against me as a person 12hourssunday to try and get your point across. I have a great deal of respect for your loyalty towards the company you work for and I'm sure First appreciate this.

I have never made any secret of not having much time for First Group as a company as I pointed out when I introduced myself to the forum last year:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=249.0

As for eating humble pie 12hours, I sincerely hope that FGW get it right, not their sake but for the sake of their long suffering passengers who have had to put up with appalling overcrowding on some lines on which they operate over the last 15 months since THEY, along DFT^▸ (Department for Transport), introduced one of the worst timetable changes (Dec06) in the history of the Great Western Mainline.

Reducing an already very busy line (Cardiff-Portsmouth) from three carriages down to two was a crazy decision in which passengers have had to pay the price through being rammed into two carriages or worst still being left behind. That's no way to run a railway and First admit that they got it wrong and are having to put right this wrong, even though they aren't the only guilty party in all this. They run the franchise, they signed up for it so they as the operator have to take responsibility.

If things don't improve, which I honestly believe that they will and we have already seen improvements over the past few months since Andrew Haines took over, then they deserve to lose the franchise and I won't be the one crying if they do.

Lets respect eachother's thoughts and opinions even when we don't agree with them and not get personal...there really is no need for it.

well said timmer.

i too work for fgw but these days i have very little loyalty to them as to be honest they are crap to work for and do not value their staff.
so i am baffled why 12hoursunday seems to be so loyal to them?

[dog box]

Baffled??.........prehaps he doesnt want to bite off the hand that feeds him

[vacman]

Baffled??.........prehaps he doesnt want to bite off the hand that feeds him

I work for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and don't find they treat me like crap? They dont like slackers which is fair enough as if your being paid good money then you shpuld do the job that your paid to do!

[grahame]

I think we're straying a long way from the origins of this topic here, and I'm not too sure that I'm comfortable with the way the topic is headed - nor with the insults and language that are staring to fly around. Have a look at the guidelines at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=1761.0 if you're in any doubt as to where the board's limits are.

The original topic says "You would be no better off with National Express" and I don't know the answer to that. I do know that under National Express, the services that I used were run on a shoestring, with little or no advertising - yet they were useful, used and increasingly used year on year.  Under First, those services that I used have been withdrawn, and I certainly do not feel better off.

However, First had their dictats from the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) (and chose to pay their money to sign up to them) and the management at National Express has changed ... so how would we have done with the same crew staying in charge?  I don't know.

Let's move on, shall we - I'm going to lock the topic, but I'm sure we'll come back to comparisons of First's versus National Express's services in the future.